When AI strengthens advising, relationships stay at the center.
AI is changing how college advising organizations support students. The challenge is not whether to engage with AI, but how to extend advisors’ reach while keeping human relationships at the center.
This half-day virtual convening brings together college access organizations, educators, practitioners, and funders to explore responsible relational AI in practice.
Grounded in Project Evident’s Design Principles for Hybrid Advising, co-created with a community of college access organizations, the event will share lessons from five organizations now putting them into practice: Matriculate, College Possible, Urban Assembly, The Scholarship Academy, and OneGoal.
Join for a sneak preview of the research and receive early access to a practical Relational AI Quickstart Guide to begin using AI to strengthen advising while keeping human connection at the center.
About the Relational AI Quickstart Guide
A practical, open resource for teams looking to build chatbots that can better support students emotionally and motivationally. Developed alongside college advising practitioners, the Relational AI Quickstart Guide includes step-by-step instructions, prompt libraries, and code for three approaches — from system prompting to RAG to fine-tuning — plus ways to evaluate whether that support is actually working for students. Attendees will get early access to this guide, which will also be made publicly available.
Relational AI Quickstart Guide Developed In Partnership With:
Speakers
-
Habib Bangura
Managing Director of Program & Product
The Urban Assembly -
Tom Brady
Founder
nuwright -
Sarah Di Troia
Chief Innovation Officer & Managing Director, OAI
Project Evident -
Sagar Gokhale
Managing Director, EAP
Project Evident -
Dr. Tiffany Green
Founder & CEO
Uprooted Academy -
Derick Hutchinson
Senior Director of Salesforce,
College Possible -
Christopher Mance II
Chief Technology Officer
The Scholarship Academy -
Leonel Olmedo
Senior Director of Technology
Matriculate -
Haisu Qu
Senior Director, Program Innovation
OneGoal -
Laura Schoonmaker
Associate I, OAI
Project Evident -
Dr. Eve Shapiro
Chief Knowledge Officer
Beyond 12 -
Peter York
Chief Data Scientist
Project Evident
Schedule
October 28, 2026
1:00 PM ET|Welcome
1:00 to 1:30 PM ET
An introduction from our Program Officer about Project Evident’s rationale and hypothesis for pursuing relational AI as a potential solution for college access success.
Speakers
- Maurice McCaulleyProgram Officer
- Sarah Di TroiaManaging Director, OAI and Chief Innovation Officer, Project Evident
1:30 PM ET|Relational AI 101: Foundations & Responsible Design
1:30 to 2:00 PM ET
What does it take to design relational AI responsibly for young people? Explore how eight design principles – developed in partnership with postsecondary success practitioners – can prioritize student safety, maintain appropriate boundaries, strengthen human relationships, and ensure relational AI supports meaningful student outcomes.
Speakers
- ModeratorSagar GokhaleManaging Director, EAP, Project Evident
- Dr. Tiffany GreenFounder and CEO, Uprooted Academy
- Dr. Eve ShapiroChief Knowledge Officer, Beyond 12
2:00 PM ET|How Do We Measure Success in Relational AI?
2:00 to 2:45 PM ET
Discover how to measure true student impact beyond engagement metrics. Learn practical approaches to assess self-efficacy, process anxiety, and persistence, ensuring students leave AI interactions more capable and supported.
Speakers
- ModeratorPeter YorkChief Data Scientist, Project Evident
- Habib BanguraManaging Director of Program & Product, The Urban Assembly
2:45 PM ET|First Steps: RAG & Prompting for Relational AI
2:45 to 3:30 PM ET
Getting started with relational AI doesn’t mean building a chatbot from scratch. This session offers a practical look at how prompting and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) can help you adapt an existing chatbot to provide more emotionally and motivationally supportive advising aligned with your organization’s mission and approach. Along the way, we’ll use the Relational AI Quickstart Guide to help you think through what implementation could look like in your own organization.
Speakers
- ModeratorLaura SchoonmakerAssociate I, OAI, Project Evident
- Chris Mance IIChief Technology Officer, The Scholarship Academy
- Derick HutchinsonSenior Director, Salesforce, College Possible
- Haisu QuSenior Director, Program Innovation, OneGoal
2:45 PM ET|The Technical Deep Dive on Fine-Tuning
2:45 to 3:30 PM ET
Take a deeper dive into the most technical approach to implementing relational AI: fine-tuning. This session will walk through how fine-tuning works, why and when it can be valuable, and how it can help an AI model better reflect your organization’s advising style, values, and goals. You’ll leave with a clearer understanding of what fine-tuning involves and what to consider when deciding whether it’s the right approach for your organization.
Speakers
- ModeratorTom BradyFounder, nuwright
- Leonel OlmedoSenior Director of Technology, Matriculate
3:30 PM ET|See It in Practice: Pilot Org Spotlights
3:30 to 4:50 PM ET
Explore how five pilot organizations are putting relational AI into practice, from onboarding and workflow design to AI-to-human handoffs. Compare approaches, ask questions, and leave with practical ideas for applying relational AI in your own organization or district.
Featuring
- College Possible
- Matriculate
- OneGoal
- The Scholarship Academy
- The Urban Assembly
4:50 PM ET|Close Out
4:50 to 5:00 PM ET
A practical recap of insights, takeaways, and tips to put into your practice right away, plus early access to the Relational AI Quickstart Guide and corresponding white paper, which brings the day’s technical approaches and resources together in one place.
Speaker
- Sarah Di TroiaManaging Director, OAI and Chief Innovation Officer, Project Evident
About OutcomesAI
Project Evident’s OutcomesAI initiative advances safe and equitable AI in the social and education sectors by helping organizations improve operational efficiency and strengthen outcomes through practitioner-centered AI adoption.